Mrs MacCready was ever so greedy by Julie Fulton

Not another snack?
Review by The Mole

As the title tells us, Mrs MacCready is a little too greedy for her own good. As we learn about just how greedy she is, she continues to get larger and larger and can no longer get clothes to fit until things reach a rather too literal bursting point...

This book highlights the perils of overeating - if a little over dramatically, but with a humour that will entertain kids and hold their attention.

The story is told in easy to read rhyme that kids will love to recite. For a 'sit beside' read to or a first reader this book is a treat. Each of the thirteen double page spreads is a delightful, brightly coloured picture illustrated by Jona Jung, with lots to talk about.

Publisher - Maverick Books
Genre - Childrens 5+

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Dear Dee by Sue Uden

A Family in turmoil 
Review by The Mole

John wants retribution for his daughter's broken life. And he wants to fix it. Nickii, his wife, wants for the pain of this quest to stop threatening his health. All Jackie wants is for a miracle rewind to take her back to being a young mother living with her husband and children. Well observed, intelligently expressed and a cracking good read are just a few of the comments which have been made about Dear Dee. Here the devastating impact of mental illness on family life is sensitively described. The reader will be left in no doubt as to the ongoing corrosive impact on the family and individual sufferer. The range of emotions, including guilt as well as a sense of helplessness felt by the family, vividly described in Dear Dee will strike a chord with readers with similar experience. An extremely well-rounded story of people struggling against life's vicissitudes, as well as a celebration of the good times and a family eventually finding a sense of peace after tragedy; the final, poignant, closing lines are at once sad but immensely inspiring and uplifting.

When we were asked if we would review this book we were told "The novel is set in the 1980's and concerns the affects that mental illness have on the sufferer and their family. Although this theme is no bundle of laughs, I think there is enough lightness of spirit and humour to lift it out of the gloom." and it was based on that, that I agreed to review it. Having read it I wanted to find a synopsis to make sure I included no plot spoilers and found the above - a very different kettle of ball games as they say. The book is not about mental illness - it is about a family that has a person that has a mental illness - but firstly it is about the family. The emotions listed in the synopsis are all there and carried to the reader in a manner that has them really feeling for every character in turn. I found myself siding with no-one but understanding and putting a name to each character from my own life. I even found myself, sadly, identifying with Clare when it came to her relationship with the mentally ill character - and yes it made me feel a little guilty.

"Emotional Roller Coaster" is an overused phrase and while this story has happy times, they are normal family happy times and not massive highs - it is a time of change in a family and most such changes bring more sadness than smiles and this story is like life. A very well told story.

Please take the opportunity to read it but maybe you will want to follow it with something a little lighter. I really did enjoy this book and I learned a little about me as well.

Publisher: Olympia Publishers
Genre: Adult Fiction

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The Dog Detectives - Gift Set

Dogs sniffing out trouble
Review by The Mole

This is a gift set of 3 Dog Detective Books

The Dog Detectives are Detective Jack and Deputy Poco Loco and each story sees them in a different part of the world doing their bit to save the day. With each page being a full colour picture that is bright and cheerful and with plenty to talk about if it is being read to a child. The whole presentation of these books make then excellent early readers for children to read aloud or alone. Each story is written with rhyme, alliteration and prose. At the end of each book is a 'facts' section that tells something of the facts about each story, things about the place that are mentioned in the story, so they can be used to teach a little and act as a discussion catalyst as well. Really good, fun books that can be bought individually or as this gift set.

An Outback Odyssey

Set in Australia, it sees the detectives helping to find a didgeridoo that has been stolen by dingoes. We meet the native people of Australia as well as some of the varied wildlife.

The Great Grizzly North

In British Columbia the detectives decide to help get everyone's bikes back from the grizzliest grizzly of all as he has stolen them so he can win the Great Rocky Cycling Race.

Lost In London

The detectives have to find, and return, the ravens to the Tower of London and have to travel across London seeing some of the sights as they go.





Maryom's Comment
Great, fun books for young readers. Brightly coloured with engaging stories.

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Night Watcher by Chris Longmuir

Vengeance is whose?
Review by The Mole

Julie's estranged husband is killed. The police are convinced he has committed suicide but Julie knows better. Julie swears vengeance on Nicole, the woman she blames for his death, and starts to stalk her. But Nicole is also being stalked by someone else, for the unhinged individual known as The Watcher has also arrived in Dundee.

Julie ingratiates herself with Nicole and begins to play mind games with her to fuel Nicole's increasing paranoia about The Watcher.

When Nicole is murdered suspicion falls on her latest lover and a disaffected employee whom Nicole has sacked. Meanwhile The Watcher turns his attentions to Julie. Will she be the next person to die?

Maryom read Chris's first book - Dead Wood which won the Dundee International Book Prize for new writers in 2009. She really enjoyed it and found it a crime thriller but also a whodunnit.

I haven't read Dead Wood but I took the opportunity to read Chris's second book, which, unfortunately, is only available as an ebook. Most people associate ebooks with ereaders but many, Chris's included, are available in several formats that can also be read on a PC. Chris sent the PDF version which I could read on a very small, very basic netbook. It is only the second ebook I have read so ebooks still contain some challenges for me.

I would not describe this as a whodunnit because I could see what was going to happen, often well before it did. OK, but I was still powerless to stop it - and that is the power of the crime thriller and Chris has harnessed this power beautifully. Things move fast and while Julie is out to take revenge on Nicole she must join the queue of people out to exact their own vengeance. Even at the end, with the killer in the hands of the police we are left wondering if Julie can now survive and what will become of Bill? When you read the story you will find the answer to one but sadly not the other... It's fiction so I could make my own answer but it's not for me to do that - it's up to Chris...

Extremely powerful crime thriller with twists and turns throughout. Highly recommended and worth battling with the Windows CE PDF viewer for - much easier with other Windows versions.

Published at: Smashwords

Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

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Please Bear's Birthday

Parties can be fun
Review by The Mole

It's Please Bear's Birthday and so he invites his friends round for a party and they all decide to come. Some of his friends are shy bears, some moaning bears, some are kind bears, some are helpful bears and so the list goes on.

The story tells, in rhyme, how all the bears behave, making it clear what good behaviour is and how it is so much more fun to behave well and win friends. Set with matching, lovely colourful pictures this book is a treat to read and is sure to be loved by children.

To be read together or as an early reader children will be sure to enjoy the book and the messages it carries.

Publisher - Maverick Books
Genre - Children's Picture book

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Noughts And Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Not Just Black And White
review by Maryom

Sephy and Callum live in a society split into two distinct classes - the dark-skinned Crosses, who are in charge and who have all the well paid jobs and big houses, and the pale Noughts, who are second-class citizens limited to menial, low paid work and substandard housing. This society doesn't approve of their friendship for Sephy is a Cross and Callum a nought, and the two classes should never mix. As they grow up and their relationship becomes more than friendship, they begin to wonder how it will ever be possible to be together. Against a background of increasing racial tension and violence, they try to find a way....

I won this book a while ago - a signed copy, as well! - and ever since it's sat on the To Be Read pile while I've read books that came in for review or from the library. Going away on holiday recently, I decided to take it with me as something the Teen could read as well if she liked. Now I wish I hadn't left it so long. I think that because I'd heard so much about it in through magazines, the web, library posters etc, as a sort of cross-racial Romeo and Juliet that I felt I had a pretty good idea of what to expect - but it outdid all my expectations.
Noughts and Crosses is an absolutely brilliant, devastating tale of love against the odds. Using first person narrative alternating between Sephy and Callum, Malorie Blackman allows the reader to see inside the minds of the characters, to contrast Sephy's comparative naiveté with Callum's greater awareness of social stereotyping and bigotry, and to see both sides of their misunderstandings. The reader is made to face up to the dreadful realities of racial segregation and, as Callum is drawn into his brother's world of political activism, the story moves to a dramatic, heart-stopping ending.
An absolute 'must read' for anyone, not merely teens.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Corgi (Random House)
Genre - Romance/Thriller, Teen


Buy Noughts And Crosses (Part1 of Noughts & Crosses Trilogy) from Amazon

The Truth About Celia Frost by Paula Rawsthorne

Mother's Secret
review by Maryom

Celia has always lived an over-protected life, living in fear of an accident due to a blood disorder. Her mother is terrified of what may happen if Celia injures herself but the reader soon realises that she hasn't always been entirely honest with her daughter. She's never allowed them to remain in one place for very long so Celia has grown up without close friends to share her secret with or confide in. Following a knife attack at Celia's latest school, her mother decides it's time to move again. This time they end up on the grim, depressing, gang-ridden Bluebell Estate, but this isn't the worst of their problems as someone is now on their trail and determined to find them.

The Truth About Celia Frost is an amazing debut teen thriller. Planted firmly in the here and now of grotty high rise housing and dodgy scientific experiments, the plot twists and turns as Celia gradually begins to uncover the truth about herself - every time I thought I'd guessed Celia's history something would happen that made me re-think it all. Fast-paced and chilling, yet so believable, I found it very difficult to stop reading once I'd started, particularly as the book neared its nail-biting finish.
An excellent book for teens looking for something other than paranormal romance.


Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Usborne
Genre - Thriller, Teen


Buy The Truth about Celia Frost from Amazon on pre-order till August 2011